Europe has surpassed the US in aid to Ukraine

US President Donald Trump called the Russian missile attack on Sumy, Ukraine, which left at least 34 people dead and more than 110 injured on Sunday "probably a mistake". The attack saw a first Iskander-M missile hit the city centre, followed by a second after rescuers arrived. On his Truth Social platform on Monday, Trump reiterated his accusations against Joe Biden and Volodymyr Zelensky for the war, criticizing their "terrible work."

These statements, combined with the facts, reduce hopes for a resumption of US military aid, which is essential to Ukraine . An analysis by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy published by Welt confirms that deliveries appear to be blocked. The institute's economists, editors of the "Ukraine Support Tracker", note: "Since Donald Trump took office on January 20, 2025, US aid has stalled." The latest US package, worth 480 million euros (including anti-aircraft missiles, air-to-ground missiles and F-16 equipment), dates back to January 9, under the Biden administration. A similar stalemate had only occurred in January 2024 due to political roadblocks in the US Congress.

On the contrary, European countries have increased their support. Between January and February, the United Kingdom (€360 million), Germany (€450 million), Norway (€610 million), Denmark (€690 million) and Sweden (€1.1 billion) promised significant new aid. Overall, according to data from the Kiel Institute updated at the end of February, Europe has allocated 138 billion euros since the start of the war, 23 billion more than the United States (€115 billion) . At that date, US military aid (€65 billion) slightly exceeded European military aid (€64 billion), a gap likely filled after last Friday's meeting of the Ukraine Contact Group (Ramstein format), whose latest commitments are not yet included in the calculations.

Germany confirms itself as Europe's largest supporter this year with 4 billion euros in bilateral aid, in addition to the 3 billion allocated in March and further future commitments. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius expressed optimism: "Russia should have no illusions, Ukraine is strengthening." German supplies expected this year include Iris-T systems, Leopard 1A5 tanks, Marder vehicles and drones. The United Kingdom (€5.2 billion) and the Netherlands (€2 billion) have also planned significant aid.

Leopard 1A5 – source Wikipedia

The Kiel Institute also highlights how smaller states in Northern and Eastern Europe (Estonia, Denmark, Lithuania, Latvia, Finland, Sweden) have provided aid exceeding 1% of their GDP, while Germany is in 16th place (0.44%). Christoph Trebesch of IfW Kiel urges large European economies to increase their contribution to offset any US deficits.

It remains uncertain whether European help alone will be enough in the long term, especially regarding the Patriot air defense systems (effective against Russian missiles and so far mainly supplied by the US) and the shortage of long-range weapons in the field. To remedy this, President Zelensky has proposed purchasing 10 Patriot systems from the USA for 15 billion dollars, also because the Italian-French IRIS-T system does not have sufficient production capacity to meet war needs (therefore resulting in a "Parade" system).

Trump responded to Zelensky's offer by stating: “Zelensky always wants to buy missiles… but if you start a war, you have to make sure you can win it… You don't start a war against someone 20 times bigger and hope people will give you missiles.” In fact, the real question to ask is: what can be the end of a war in which no one has set achievable strategic objectives?

The article Europe has surpassed the US in aid to Ukraine comes from Economic Scenarios .

This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/leuropa-ha-superato-gli-usa-negli-aiuti-allucraina/ on Tue, 15 Apr 2025 09:00:05 +0000.